OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Safe and Sample-efficient Reinforcement Learning for Clustered Dynamic Environments
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

This study proposes a safe and sample-efficient reinforcement learning (RL) framework to address two major challenges in developing applicable RL algorithms: satisfying safety constraints and efficiently learning with limited samples. To guarantee safety in real-world complex environments, we use the safe set algorithm (SSA) to monitor and modify the nominal controls, and evaluate SSA+RL in a clustered dynamic environment which is challenging to be solved by existing RL algorithms. However, the SSA+RL framework is usually not sample-efficient especially in reward-sparse environments, which has not been addressed in previous safe RL works. To improve the learning efficiency, we propose three techniques: (1) avoiding behaving overly conservative by adapting the SSA; (2) encouraging safe exploration using random network distillation with safety constraints; (3) improving policy convergence by treating SSA as expert demonstrations and directly learn from that. The experimental results show that our framework can achieve better safety performance compare to other safe RL methods during training and solve the task with substantially fewer episodes. Project website: https://hychen-naza.github.io/projects/Safe_RL/.
The Robot in the Room: Influence of Robot Facial Expressions and Gaze on Human-Human-Robot Collaboration
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2023
Year: 2023

Robot facial expressions and gaze are important factors for enhancing human-robot interaction (HRI), but their effects on human collaboration and perception are not well understood, for instance, in collaborative game scenarios. In this study, we designed a collaborative triadic HRI game scenario, where two participants worked together to insert objects into a shape sorter. One participant assumed the role of a guide. The guide instructed the other participant, who played the role of an actor, by placing occluded objects into the sorter. A humanoid robot issued instructions, observed the interaction, and displayed social cues to elicit changes in the two participants' behavior. We measured human collaboration as a function of task completion time and the participants' perceptions of the robot by rating its behavior as intelligent or random. Participants also evaluated the robot by filling out the Godspeed questionnaire. We found that human collaboration was higher when the robot displayed a happy facial expression at the beginning of the game compared to a neutral facial expression. We also found that participants perceived the robot as more intelligent when it displayed a positive facial expression at the end of the game. The robot's behavior was also perceived as intelligent when directing its gaze toward the guide at the beginning of the interaction, not the actor. These findings provide insights into how robot facial expressions and gaze influence human behavior and perception in collaboration.
Chat2VIS: Fine-Tuning Data Visualisations using Multilingual Natural Language Text and Pre-Trained Large Language Models
Venue: arXiv cs.HC 2023
Year: 2023

The explosion of data in recent years is driving individuals to leverage technology to generate insights. Traditional tools bring heavy learning overheads and the requirement for understanding complex charting techniques. Such barriers can hinder those who may benefit from harnessing data for informed decision making. The emerging field of generating data visualisations from natural language text (NL2VIS) addresses this issue. This study showcases Chat2VIS, a state-of-the-art NL2VIS solution. It capitalises on the latest in AI technology with the upsurge in pre-trained large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-3, Codex, and ChatGPT. Furthermore, the rise in natural language interfaces (NLI) and chatbots is taking centre stage. This work illustrates how Chat2VIS leverages similar techniques to fine-tune data visualisation components beyond that demonstrated in previous approaches. In addition, this paper presents the flexibility of Chat2VIS to comprehend multilingual natural language requests. No other NL2VIS system has demonstrated this unique talent. In concluding, this research provides quantitative benchmarking evaluations to contribute to the paucity of NL2VIS standards.
GPT is becoming a Turing machine: Here are some ways to program it
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2023
Year: 2023

We demonstrate that, through appropriate prompting, GPT-3 family of models can be triggered to perform iterative behaviours necessary to execute (rather than just write or recall) programs that involve loops, including several popular algorithms found in computer science curricula or software developer interviews. We trigger execution and description of Iterations by Regimenting Self-Attention (IRSA) in one (or a combination) of three ways: 1) Using strong repetitive structure in an example of an execution path of a target program for one particular input, 2) Prompting with fragments of execution paths, and 3) Explicitly forbidding (skipping) self-attention to parts of the generated text. On a dynamic program execution, IRSA leads to larger accuracy gains than replacing the model with the much more powerful GPT-4. IRSA has promising applications in education, as the prompts and responses resemble student assignments in data structures and algorithms classes. Our findings hold implications for evaluating LLMs, which typically target the in-context learning: We show that prompts that may not even cover one full task example can trigger algorithmic behaviour, allowing solving problems previously thought of as hard for LLMs, such as logical puzzles. Consequently, prompt design plays an even more critical role in LLM performance than previously recognized.
Feature Tracks are not Zero-Mean Gaussian
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

In state estimation algorithms that use feature tracks as input, it is customary to assume that the errors in feature track positions are zero-mean Gaussian. Using a combination of calibrated camera intrinsics, ground-truth camera pose, and depth images, it is possible to compute ground-truth positions for feature tracks extracted using an image processing algorithm. We find that feature track errors are not zero-mean Gaussian and that the distribution of errors is conditional on the type of motion, the speed of motion, and the image processing algorithm used to extract the tracks.
Using Simple Incentives to Improve Two-Sided Fairness in Ridesharing Systems
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2023
Year: 2023

State-of-the-art order dispatching algorithms for ridesharing batch passenger requests and allocate them to a fleet of vehicles in a centralized manner, optimizing over the estimated values of each passenger-vehicle matching using integer linear programming (ILP). Using good estimates of future values, such ILP-based approaches are able to significantly increase the service rates (percentage of requests served) for a fixed fleet of vehicles. However, such approaches that focus solely on maximizing efficiency can lead to disparities for both drivers (e.g., income inequality) and passengers (e.g., inequality of service for different groups). Existing approaches that consider fairness only do it for naive assignment policies, require extensive training, or look at only single-sided fairness. We propose a simple incentive-based fairness scheme that can be implemented online as a part of this ILP formulation that allows us to improve fairness over a variety of fairness metrics. Deriving from a lens of variance minimization, we describe how these fairness incentives can be formulated for two distinct use cases for passenger groups and driver fairness. We show that under mild conditions, our approach can guarantee an improvement in the chosen metric for the worst-off individual. We also show empirically that our Simple Incentives approach significantly outperforms prior art, despite requiring no retraining; indeed, it often leads to a large improvement over the state-of-the-art fairness-aware approach in both overall service rate and fairness.
An AI-driven intelligent traffic management model for 6G cloud radio access networks
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2023
Year: 2023

This letter proposes a novel Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) traffic analysis and management model that estimates probable RAN traffic congestion and mitigate its effect by adopting a suitable handling mechanism. A computation approach is introduced to classify heterogeneous RAN traffic into distinct traffic states based on bandwidth consumption and execution time of various job requests. Further, a cloud-based traffic management is employed to schedule and allocate resources among user job requests according to the associated traffic states to minimize latency and maximize bandwidth utilization. The experimental evaluation and comparison of the proposed model with state-of-the-art methods reveal that it is effective in minimizing the worse effect of traffic congestion and improves bandwidth utilization and reduces job execution latency up to 17.07% and 18%, respectively.
3D Facial Imperfection Regeneration: Deep learning approach and 3D printing prototypes
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

This study explores the potential of a fully convolutional mesh autoencoder model for regenerating 3D nature faces with the presence of imperfect areas. We utilize deep learning approaches in graph processing and analysis to investigate the capabilities model in recreating a filling part for facial scars. Our approach in dataset creation is able to generate a facial scar rationally in a virtual space that corresponds to the unique circumstances. Especially, we propose a new method which is named 3D Facial Imperfection Regeneration(3D-FaIR) for reproducing a complete face reconstruction based on the remaining features of the patient face. To further enhance the applicable capacity of the present research, we develop an improved outlier technique to separate the wounds of patients and provide appropriate wound cover models. Also, a Cir3D-FaIR dataset of imperfect faces and open codes was released at https://github.com/SIMOGroup/3DFaIR. Our findings demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach to help patients recover more quickly and safely through convenient techniques. We hope that this research can contribute to the development of new products and innovative solutions for facial scar regeneration.
Deep Linear Discriminant Analysis with Variation for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2023
Year: 2023

The polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis is a problem that can be leveraged using prognostication based learning procedures. Many implementations of PCOS can be seen with Machine Learning but the algorithms have certain limitations in utilizing the processing power graphical processing units. The simple machine learning algorithms can be improved with advanced frameworks using Deep Learning. The Linear Discriminant Analysis is a linear dimensionality reduction algorithm for classification that can be boosted in terms of performance using deep learning with Deep LDA, a transformed version of the traditional LDA. In this result oriented paper we present the Deep LDA implementation with a variation for prognostication of PCOS.
Deep Active Learning with Contrastive Learning Under Realistic Data Pool Assumptions
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Active learning aims to identify the most informative data from an unlabeled data pool that enables a model to reach the desired accuracy rapidly. This benefits especially deep neural networks which generally require a huge number of labeled samples to achieve high performance. Most existing active learning methods have been evaluated in an ideal setting where only samples relevant to the target task, i.e., in-distribution samples, exist in an unlabeled data pool. A data pool gathered from the wild, however, is likely to include samples that are irrelevant to the target task at all and/or too ambiguous to assign a single class label even for the oracle. We argue that assuming an unlabeled data pool consisting of samples from various distributions is more realistic. In this work, we introduce new active learning benchmarks that include ambiguous, task-irrelevant out-of-distribution as well as in-distribution samples. We also propose an active learning method designed to acquire informative in-distribution samples in priority. The proposed method leverages both labeled and unlabeled data pools and selects samples from clusters on the feature space constructed via contrastive learning. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method requires a lower annotation budget than existing active learning methods to reach the same level of accuracy.
A User-Based Authentication and DoS Mitigation Scheme for Wearable Wireless Body Sensor Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) is one of the greatest growing technology for sensing and performing various tasks. The information transmitted in the WBSNs is vulnerable to cyber-attacks, therefore security is very important. Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are considered one of the major threats against WBSNs security. In DoS attacks, an adversary targets to degrade and shut down the efficient use of the network and disrupt the services in the network causing them inaccessible to its intended users. If sensitive information of patients in WBSNs, such as the medical history is accessed by unauthorized users, the patient may suffer much more than the disease itself, it may result in loss of life. This paper proposes a User-Based authentication scheme to mitigate DoS attacks in WBSNs. A five-phase User-Based authentication DoS mitigation scheme for WBSNs is designed by integrating Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) with Rivest Cipher 4 (RC4) to ensure a strong authentication process that will only allow authorized users to access nodes on WBSNs.
No more Reviewer #2: Subverting Automatic Paper-Reviewer Assignment using Adversarial Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

The number of papers submitted to academic conferences is steadily rising in many scientific disciplines. To handle this growth, systems for automatic paper-reviewer assignments are increasingly used during the reviewing process. These systems use statistical topic models to characterize the content of submissions and automate the assignment to reviewers. In this paper, we show that this automation can be manipulated using adversarial learning. We propose an attack that adapts a given paper so that it misleads the assignment and selects its own reviewers. Our attack is based on a novel optimization strategy that alternates between the feature space and problem space to realize unobtrusive changes to the paper. To evaluate the feasibility of our attack, we simulate the paper-reviewer assignment of an actual security conference (IEEE S&P) with 165 reviewers on the program committee. Our results show that we can successfully select and remove reviewers without access to the assignment system. Moreover, we demonstrate that the manipulated papers remain plausible and are often indistinguishable from benign submissions.
Diverse Motion In-betweening with Dual Posture Stitching
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

In-betweening is a technique for generating transitions given initial and target character states. The majority of existing works require multiple (often $>$10) frames as input, which are not always accessible. Our work deals with a focused yet challenging problem: to generate the transition when given exactly two frames (only the first and last). To cope with this challenging scenario, we implement our bi-directional scheme which generates forward and backward transitions from the start and end frames with two adversarial autoregressive networks, and stitches them in the middle of the transition where there is no strict ground truth. The autoregressive networks based on conditional variational autoencoders (CVAE) are optimized by searching for a pair of optimal latent codes that minimize a novel stitching loss between their outputs. Results show that our method achieves higher motion quality and more diverse results than existing methods on both the LaFAN1 and Human3.6m datasets.
Informed Machine Learning, Centrality, CNN, Relevant Document Detection, Repatriation of Indigenous Human Remains
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2023
Year: 2023

Among the pressing issues facing Australian and other First Nations peoples is the repatriation of the bodily remains of their ancestors, which are currently held in Western scientific institutions. The success of securing the return of these remains to their communities for reburial depends largely on locating information within scientific and other literature published between 1790 and 1970 documenting their theft, donation, sale, or exchange between institutions. This article reports on collaborative research by data scientists and social science researchers in the Research, Reconcile, Renew Network (RRR) to develop and apply text mining techniques to identify this vital information. We describe our work to date on developing a machine learning-based solution to automate the process of finding and semantically analysing relevant texts. Classification models, particularly deep learning-based models, are known to have low accuracy when trained with small amounts of labelled (i.e. relevant/non-relevant) documents. To improve the accuracy of our detection model, we explore the use of an Informed Neural Network (INN) model that describes documentary content using expert-informed contextual knowledge. Only a few labelled documents are used to provide specificity to the model, using conceptually related keywords identified by RRR experts in provenance research. The results confirm the value of using an INN network model for identifying relevant documents related to the investigation of the global commercial trade in Indigenous human remains. Empirical analysis suggests that this INN model can be generalized for use by other researchers in the social sciences and humanities who want to extract relevant information from large textual corpora.
OpenSCV: An Open Hierarchical Taxonomy for Smart Contract Vulnerabilities
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2023
Year: 2023

Smart contracts are nowadays at the core of most blockchain systems, as they specify and allow an agreement between entities that wish to perform a transaction. As any computer program, smart contracts are subject to the presence of residual faults, including severe security vulnerabilities, which require that the vulnerable contract is terminated in the blockchain. In this context, research began to be developed to prevent the deployment of smart contract holding vulnerabilities, mostly in the form of vulnerability detection tools. Along with these efforts, several and heterogeneous vulnerability classification schemes arised (e.g., most notably DASP and SWC). At the time of writing, these are mostly outdated initiatives, despite the fact that smart contract vulnerabilities are continuously being discovered and the associated rich information being mostly disregarded. In this paper, we propose OpenSCV, a new and Open hierarchical taxonomy for Smart Contract Vulnerabilities, which is open to community contributions and matches the current state of the practice, while being prepared to handle future modifications and evolution. The taxonomy was built based on the analysis of research on vulnerability classification, community-maintained classification schemes, and research on smart contract vulnerability detection. We show how OpenSCV covers the announced detection ability of current vulnerability detection tools, and highlight its usefulness as a resource in smart contract vulnerability research.
SIO: Synthetic In-Distribution Data Benefits Out-of-Distribution Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Building up reliable Out-of-Distribution (OOD) detectors is challenging, often requiring the use of OOD data during training. In this work, we develop a data-driven approach which is distinct and complementary to existing works: Instead of using external OOD data, we fully exploit the internal in-distribution (ID) training set by utilizing generative models to produce additional synthetic ID images. The classifier is then trained using a novel objective that computes weighted loss on real and synthetic ID samples together. Our training framework, which is termed SIO, serves as a "plug-and-play" technique that is designed to be compatible with existing and future OOD detection algorithms, including the ones that leverage available OOD training data. Our experiments on CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and ImageNet variants demonstrate that SIO consistently improves the performance of nearly all state-of-the-art (SOTA) OOD detection algorithms. For instance, on the challenging CIFAR-10 v.s. CIFAR-100 detection problem, SIO improves the average OOD detection AUROC of 18 existing methods from 86.25\% to 89.04\% and achieves a new SOTA of 92.94\% according to the OpenOOD benchmark. Code is available at https://github.com/zjysteven/SIO.
Spatial Latent Representations in Generative Adversarial Networks for Image Generation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

In the majority of GAN architectures, the latent space is defined as a set of vectors of given dimensionality. Such representations are not easily interpretable and do not capture spatial information of image content directly. In this work, we define a family of spatial latent spaces for StyleGAN2, capable of capturing more details and representing images that are out-of-sample in terms of the number and arrangement of object parts, such as an image of multiple faces or a face with more than two eyes. We propose a method for encoding images into our spaces, together with an attribute model capable of performing attribute editing in these spaces. We show that our spaces are effective for image manipulation and encode semantic information well. Our approach can be used on pre-trained generator models, and attribute edition can be done using pre-generated direction vectors making the barrier to entry for experimentation and use extremely low. We propose a regularization method for optimizing latent representations, which equalizes distributions of parts of latent spaces, making representations much closer to generated ones. We use it for encoding images into spatial spaces to obtain significant improvement in quality while keeping semantics and ability to use our attribute model for edition purposes. In total, using our methods gives encoding quality boost even as high as 30% in terms of LPIPS score comparing to standard methods, while keeping semantics. Additionally, we propose a StyleGAN2 training procedure on our spatial latent spaces, together with a custom spatial latent representation distribution to make spatially closer elements in the representation more dependent on each other than farther elements. Such approach improves the FID score by 29% on SpaceNet, and is able to generate consistent images of arbitrary sizes on spatially homogeneous datasets, like satellite imagery.
VisCo Grids: Surface Reconstruction with Viscosity and Coarea Grids
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2023
Year: 2023

Surface reconstruction has been seeing a lot of progress lately by utilizing Implicit Neural Representations (INRs). Despite their success, INRs often introduce hard to control inductive bias (i.e., the solution surface can exhibit unexplainable behaviours), have costly inference, and are slow to train. The goal of this work is to show that replacing neural networks with simple grid functions, along with two novel geometric priors achieve comparable results to INRs, with instant inference, and improved training times. To that end we introduce VisCo Grids: a grid-based surface reconstruction method incorporating Viscosity and Coarea priors. Intuitively, the Viscosity prior replaces the smoothness inductive bias of INRs, while the Coarea favors a minimal area solution. Experimenting with VisCo Grids on a standard reconstruction baseline provided comparable results to the best performing INRs on this dataset.